Water-Mediated Hydrophobic Interactions

Hydrophobic interactions are driven by the combined influence of the direct attraction between oily solutes and an additional water-mediated interaction whose magnitude (and sign) depends sensitively on both solute size and attraction. The resulting delicate balance can lead to a slightly repulsive...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annual review of physical chemistry 2016-05, Vol.67 (1), p.617-638
Main Author: Ben-Amotz, Dor
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
compensation
crossover
enthalpy
entropy
free energy
Hydrophilic surfaces
hydrophobic
Molecules
Physical chemistry
potential of mean force
Solutes
Thermal energy
Water
water-mediated
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Summary:Hydrophobic interactions are driven by the combined influence of the direct attraction between oily solutes and an additional water-mediated interaction whose magnitude (and sign) depends sensitively on both solute size and attraction. The resulting delicate balance can lead to a slightly repulsive water-mediated interaction that drives oily molecules apart rather than pushing them together and thus opposes their direct (van der Waals) attraction for each other. As a consequence, competing solute size-dependent crossovers weaken hydrophobic interactions sufficiently that they are only expected to significantly exceed random thermal energy fluctuations for processes that bury more than ∼1 nm 2 of water-exposed area.
ISSN:0066-426X
1545-1593
DOI:10.1146/annurev-physchem-040215-112412